The government blames ethnic Uighurs of using knives to stab people and detonating explosives at a railway station in the provincial capital of Urumqi. Chinese President Xi, who had just left the region after a four-day visit, vowed to deploy a "strike-first approach against terrorists".

Urumqi (AsiaNews) - A violent attack, described by the
authorities as a clear act of terrorism, rocked the capital of China's
northeastern province of Xinjiang province last night. The area has been seething
for a long time with ethnic tensions between China and ethnic Uighurs, the
indigenous Turkic Muslim population.

Three people were
killed and 79 were injured when a group of attackers used knives and detonated
explosives at Urumqi's south railway station. China's President Xi Jinping had
just concluded a visit to the region, the first since his election as
head of state.

Xinjiang's local
government said the attack began with an explosion at an exit of Urumqi South
Station at around 7.10 pm as the train from Chengdu arrived.

"According
to initial police investigations . . . the attackers used knives to stab people
at the station exit, and detonated explosives at the same time," it was
reported. The station was immediately closed.

In reacting to the incident, the Chinese president called on local
authorities to take "decisive actions" to "suppress the
terrorists' rampant momentum".

In Xi's view, "The battle to combat violence and terrorism will not
allow even a moment of slackness," and that "it was essential" to "deeply
understand Xinjiang separatism".

The province is one of the most turbulent in all of China. Its Uighur
Muslim minority, who number about nine million, have long sought independence from China.

The central government, for its part, has brought in hundreds of thousands
of settlers to make Han Chinese the dominant ethnic group.

At the same
time, it has severely curtailed Muslim religious worship as well as the
teaching of the local language and culture.

Since 2009 Chinese police and the military have held the region under a
special regime, which Beijing imposed following clashes
that left nearly 200 people dead. As
a result of various episodes of violence, hundreds of long prison sentences were
imposed and dozens of death penalties were carried out.

Chinese authorities blame Muslim extremists for the wave of violence. Uighur
exiles claim instead that Beijing is "exaggerating" the threat of
Islamic terrorism to justify repression against indigenous Uighurs.